August 27, 2011

2011.08.27: Take Action for Rikers’ Island Prisoners! Demand the City Create an Emergency Evacuation Plan

Take Action for Rikers’ Island Prisoners! Demand the City Create an Emergency Evacuation Plan

Mayor Bloomberg has announced that in the event of a hurricane, that he will not evacuate prisoners at Rikers’ Island, claiming instead to have a “contingency plan” in place. The experience of prisoners in New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina shows that city authorities will abandon the basic rights of prisoners in the face of disaster.

We can’t let Bloomberg get away with this!

(1.) Demand the city create an emergency evacuation plan by 5pm today to evacuate prisoners at Rikers Island in the event that other areas in Zone B or C around Rikers Island are evacuated.

The city has no evacuation plan for Rikers Island, despite its low elevation and its nearly 13,000 prisoners. Please do not let these individuals, or the ones at the nearby floating Vernon C. Bain Correction Center, suffer.

It is unconscionable that a government official, an elected official, would purposely leave out a plan of evacuation for human beings incarcerated. While certainly, some of the inmates are dangerous, they can be placed in separate quarters designed to keep them contained but safe. I would have been shocked had I not heard about what occurred in New Orleans. NY mayor Bloomberg should lose his job TODAY! If our leaders refuse to have morality at their forefront, they will only lead our children to believe that life has no value if you are down and out. They will believe that they have a right to decide who lives or dies based on how that person fits into society. They will believe that a person’s value is in their skin color, their bank account balance, and that they have a right to judge another by their misdealings.

However, amazingly, all at Rikers haven’t even been convicted of a crime. Some are being held there until their court dates occur. Perhaps they could not afford bail which does not make them guilty of a crime. However, NONE of that matters in this case! These inmates should not have to give a reason for their lives to count! We are NOT gods and Bloomberg hardly seems related to God by his behavior. Wake up! Correct this oversight now and create a safe emergency evacuation plan for those on Rikers island who are in the path of the hurricane!

I definitely submitted a complaint. State officials are showing deliberate indifference towards the lives of these prisoners and pretrial detainees. This is a clear violation of these prisoners Eighth Amendment rights and absolutely deplorable!

Our brothers and sisters housed on rikers are human beings. They deserve to be treated as such. their lives are important as anyone elses and a plan of action for their safety in needed and required please do something to help them now

[…] safe—but nobody seems to know what it is! Therefore, the Association of Legal Aid Attorneys is demanding that the city create an evacuation plan by 5 PM EST today. So far, however, nobody from the city […]

It was absolutely unconscionable how quickly the city evacuated the homes of wealthy people in Battery Park City, at the same time that they refused to do anything to assure the safety of incarcerated people on Rikers Island. It was also somewhat offensive to hear the head of the the Correctional Workers’ union say that his main concern was for the safety of the workers. While the safety of these workers is indeed important, so is the safety of the people who are on the island unwillingly, and cannot be evacuated easily after tragedy strikes. These people are clearly entitled to the same safety provisions as wealthy people, or workers who are free to leave the island if conditions become dicey.